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Friday, April 25, 2008

My friends think I am good at decorating, but really, I'm just good at copying others good ideas. I saw this photo online at Heather Bailey's website and decided to model my sewing room after it.

So I painted the walls pink, bought a shelf for my fabrics, covered my cork boards with Heather Bailey designer fabrics, and now I just need to paint my sewing table that gorgeous distressed turquiose color. If it ever gets warm enough to haul it outside and paint it, it will happen. I thought of cleaning my sewing room before I photographed it, but hey, this is how it looks on a daily basis. (Yes, a new house is being built on the *&^% flag lot behind us. Don't ask me how I feel about that.) I need to do something about having a black chair in this very feminine-looking room. I need to figure out if I can take the chair apart and re-upholster it. It's comfy!

This cutting table has saved my life. I can't believe I sewed all those years without it! My little Ikea shelf would look gret if I would keep my fabric organized into colors, but that's too much work.

I bought this chair at Ikea so that Paul can visit me when I am working. He likes to prop himself down there with the latest copy of Fortune Magazine. We're a good team. Need to recover the chair in cute pastel fabric too. Ah, the never ending projects.

I buy my fabric stash wholesale now and avoid the retail prices. I had no idea retail was marked up 100% until I started buying wholesale!

My shelving unit is loaded with Ikea stainless boxes. All my containers are critical to keeping me 'semi-organized'. This unit holds my patterns, baskets of serger thread, zippers and buttons, sewing book references, etc. (The gallon of distilled water on the floor is to refill my iron.)

My iPod is my best friend. I have it loaded with heathen music that I love and LDS General Conference reports. See my Pullitzer-Prize winning Shuffle Me Righteous Blog for more info about my quirkiness with music and conference mixes. I hang Hallie's artwork behind the iPod on the bulletin board.

We complete your 360 degree tour of my sewing room studio with a view of my college diploma on the wall. I've always hung my diploma in my sewing room since the day I got it 12 years ago. It's the most expensive piece of paper I own and it took me another 5 years after college to pay off that piece of paper. Ah, but it was worth it. Look wear I am now? Working in a pink studio with sewing machines worth more than our 1993 Nissan Sentra.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

I started going gray in my early twentites. So did all of my siblings. We blame it all on our mother. She has the early-gray-hair gene. (We also inherited the high-cholesterol gene and diabetes gene. Aren't we lucky?) Having the gray-hair gene is at least manageable. So I've been coloring my hair since I was 25. I usually keep it my normal dark brown, but two weeks ago I let my stylist convince me to go dark. Like one shade lighter than black on the color wheel thing. It's always a bit bizarre when they pull out the cardstock loaded with plastic 'hair' dyed certain colors. I choose the color as if I'm looking at the menu, "Mmmm.....I'll take brown 3b today." Well, it pretty much turned out really dark, practically black. And I know because my 4 year old (not pictured cause she was having a tempter tantrum off screen) told me so.

Hallie: Mom, now your hair is black like Nathan's and Ilene's.(Now what you need to know is that I have never had black hair before. In fact, it's always my pet peeve when people tell me I have black hair. Ummm, are you color blind? It's clearly brown!!)

I believe in miracles. But maybe what you consider a miracle and what I consider a miracle are two different things. Having grown up in California where not too much goes dormant in the winter, I am always surprised living here in Utah when spring comes and things come to life again. Particularly in my own yard. I don’t have a green thumb, but I try. I’m a sucker for loading my yard with perennials that bloom at different times of the year so that I have color all year long. (Bottom picture is of my last home. But the new owners hated it so they ripped all flowers, perennials, and shrubs.) But for some reason I kill certain plants long before their time. I kill zucchini and squash plants most every year. And sometimes our trees just never come out of dormancy. Like last year our red maple just never came back to life in the spring. So you must know how amazed I am this

year to see my trees in bloom. Here is my Yoshiro Flowering Cherry in bloom. Honestly, with me as the gardener it’s a miracle it’s made it close to two years in my yard. But my Patmore Ash is still dormant……or is it dead? I don't see any buds on it yet. I do believe in miracles, I do, I do, I do.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Hallie got hold of the scissors yesterday and cut off all the hair on the side of her head. Zoom in to start crying. I sure cried. When she went to bed she prayed and asked Heavenly Father to help her hair grow back. Maybe she should pray to avoid sharp instruments instead.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

I've been on a sewing spree lately making tunics. I've been dying to have one for myself but seeing as I am a lazy sewer when it comes to sewing for me, I hunted high and low for a tunic pattern I could make in less than two hours. Qualifiations? No facings, no buttons or zippers. I wanted to just pull it over my head. This is the tunic I came up with for myself. (I modifed an out of print McCall's pattern.)

And here are the easy-peasy tunics for Ilene. Her pattern is from McCall's 5458 (the red shirt). I think these turned out adorable! (Although the first picture is from a horrid pattern I will never use again.) It feels good to once again (occasionally when weather permits) get out of sweaters and into lightweight cotton shirts.

I went ahead and bought myself a new camera. (Hey, it's a business write off.) I went with the Nikon D40 at my Dad's suggestions. He's been using Nikons since the 1960s so I figure that's a good sign. Here's what I've shot so far. Keep in mind I know NOTHING about photography. Still, I'm happy so far. (I bought the bracelet from this shop on etsy.com. Love it!)

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

I have no desire to be a photographer--the last thing I need is one more expensive hobby. (Right honey?) But this week my sister Carolyn and my Dad have been in town and have been helping me re-photograph items for my etsy store. I thought the pictures would turn out great, but I had no idea just how much better my items would look photographed with a real camera. My hubby hates it that I say our camera (only 6 months old) is Mickey-Mouse, but I don't think he can deny it any longer. Guess I'm gonna have to hire me a photographer--do you think I can find one around here who would want to swap photos for pillows? Or aprons? Or Tote Bags? Anyone?

Sunday, April 06, 2008

I have a very smart friend Allison. Actually, I have lots of smart friends, but Allison is who I am talking about at this moment. A couple of years ago Allison and another friend started a food cooperative in our neighborhood. 36 families belong to this produce co-op. Here's how it works. A truckload of produce is purchased every-other week, sorted into laundry baskets, and the picked up by us 36 folks. It's a great way to get a good variety of produce at great prices. (Yes, Costco is a great deal, but you don't always want to have to buy 5 pounds of broccoli to get a good deal.) We also get cool and exotic stuff like daikon radishes and fresh basil. And this week we were able to buy strawberries in bulk at about $1 a pound!! So I bought 16 pounds. I made jam, ate strawberry shortcake three days in a row, waffles with strawberries, etc. Anyway, here's a picture of what I picked up this last Thursday. The downside of the co-op is finding room in my refirgerator for all this produce! Not too bad of a problem. Thanks Allison! As she says, "Saving the neighborhood from twinkies and soda one family at a time." Amen sista!

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About Me

I sure love cooking, sewing, my kids, modern machine embroidery, and decorating. I started meringuedesigns.net in 2007, a great place for modern embroidery designs. I live in Utah but I'll always be a California girl.